Page 78

“Before I nod off, I need to say something.” I sat up straight, willing myself to be coherent. “I can never thank you all enough. Coco was a freaking rock star. She saved our butts time after time after time. I’ve seen you guys fly before—no shade to any of you—but Coco is amazing.” I met Clive’s gaze. “We owe her a rainbow assortment of running tights.”

He tried to look serious as he said, “Of course.”

“Uncle Bracken, the only one of us who actually wanted to come on this journey, was ridiculous. He kept a level head, no matter how crazy it was. He knew the players and their history. If his magic couldn’t save us—and it usually did—his sword took over.” I turned to Clive again. “Oh, we’re going to fly Bracken to Boston to see his son.”

“Right now?” Clive asked.

I shook my head. “When he’s ready.” I glanced at Coco. “Unless he and Coco go instead.”

Clive kissed my cheek. “Perhaps we should all go together.”

Bracken grinned, his eyes shinier than usual.

“Sword?” Vlad leaned forward. “I thought it was a dagger.”

“Apparently it was traveling incognito,” Bracken told him before taking a sip of grog.

“And Stheno,” I began, “came with us even though she had every reason not to. She came to keep me safe and I can never thank her—or any of you—enough.” Wincing, I told Clive, “She wants the Maybach and a driver.”

Clive lifted his eyebrows and stared at me.

“It’s okay, kid.” Stheno leaned into the Minotaur. “I got Mio, and Hades fixed my eyes. That’s payment enough.”

I looked around the barroom, feeling incredibly grateful. My mom was right. My life was filled with unbelievable friends and family. “Thank you all for coming here. I know waiting for us was probably unbearable, but having you here now is everything.”

And then a very important thought made its way through my sluggish brain. “Fyr, if you’re here, who’s taking care of Fergus?”

Clive laughed and said to Fyr, “I told you.”

“Dave,” Fyr said. “He’s got Fergus and Alice.”

I snuggled back into Clive, resting my head in the crook of his neck. He smelled like home and safety. “I guess that’s okay then.” I waved a hand around. “You guys tell it. I’m napping now.”

Clive’s fingertips traced over my arms. What happened here?

I opened my eyes and remembered, before closing them again. Athena made me an offer. If I took back my scars, she’d let me see my parents.

Clive kissed my jaw. That was a good deal. When you’re more awake, I’d love to hear about your time with them.

Coco and Bracken tag-teamed most of the story, with Stheno piping up occasionally. “See? If I’d kept my mouth shut, I wouldn’t have found Mio and Sam wouldn’t have spoken with her parents. Those judges don’t know everything.”

I was drifting when I felt Clive flinch. I forced my brain to focus. Bracken was telling them about me fighting the soldiers from Elysium, the ones they could neither see nor help with.

I survived, I reminded Clive.

Everyone was justifiably horrified by the Stymphalian birds. Fyr, who was seated beside Coco, tipped back in his chair to check her back for wounds. She shook her head and smiled. I couldn’t be sure from where I sat, but it looked like he held her hand under the table after that. Benvair’s gaze didn’t miss much. Like me, she clocked it and then looked away, the corner of her mouth tipping up.

Once we got to the part of the story involving Persephone, it was all on me to tell. I forced myself to sit up again and tell it as succinctly as possible. Hades and I were often speaking a language no one else around us knew, so they couldn’t be sure what was happening.

“The king trapped her in a cave for thousands of years because she wasn’t interested in him?” Owen glanced at George and Alec. “How is that a remotely appropriate response?”

I shook my head. “It isn’t, but that’s who he is. Any perceived slight must be punished. He even said—though I’m not sure if it was true or he was being a dick—that he’d forgotten all about putting her in his little prison. She was so inconsequential, it had slipped his mind.”

Owen couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “No food or water. Solitary confinement for thousands of years.” He shook his head. “The poor thing.”

“At least for her,” I told him, “it hadn’t seemed like thousands. I don’t know how long it felt like, but the prison was in Faerie, so time ran differently. She sounded as horrified as you when she’d learned how long she’d been gone. Poor Hades felt every one of those years she was gone.”

Clive’s arms tightened around me. I can’t even imagine. I don’t want to.